Think I've broken the motherboard.

[Craig]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

I posted a topic a few days ago regarding the transfer speed of my
Dad's H.D.D. I thought I'd try updating the BIOS to see whether this
would help. It didn't.

I flashed the BIOS to the latest version, the flash went ok,
unfortunately the P.C. won't boot anymore. There are various errors
reported;
page fault in non paged area
unknown flash type
incorrect system disk

Sometimes there are no errors, just numbers and letters scrolling down
the screen.

I'm kinda panicking now, I'm guessing that the BIOS I used wasn't
suitable for that motherboard.

Can I fix it? Is it as simple as downloading an older BIOS from the
website and re-flashing?

Please help!!

TIA

 

[Craig]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

First have you tried clearing the CMOS?
----Yes, and I loaded the failsafe options in the BIOS, didn't make any
difference.

Did you use the traditional DOS boot floppy to
flash, or some other method (like what?)
----Unfortunately I used the Windows utility that Gigabyte provided.

but fortunately
the EEPROM is in a socket instead of soldered on, is this
correct?
----I'm not sure, I'm at work at the moment!

If you happen to have a copy of the bios that was previously
being used, that might be a good candidate to try reflashing
to the board if necessary
----I had the foresight to save the previously used BIOS, I saved it
onto the desktop.
I could plug the H.D.D. into my own P.C. and recover the BIOS.

when the system comes up is there a way into the bios for an
integral flasher and/or does it attempt to access the floppy
drive?
----I can access the BIOS while the system POSTs, it does attempt to
acess the floppy drive,
however, It doesn't always MANAGE to access the floppy drive.

is yours revision 3 or above, or below rev. 3?
----It's definitely below revision 3. I'm fairly positive I used a BIOS
for a revision 3 board whereas my board is older.

Would I be right in thinking that if I recovered the previously saved
(and working) BIOS, made a DOS boot disk with the BIOS on it,
then boot the P.C. I could revert to the original BIOS?

I don't suppose you'd have any idea whether I've caused permanant
damage would you?

Many thanks!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 8 Dec 2004 00:24:29 -0800, "Craig"
<craigandyrussell@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I posted a topic a few days ago regarding the transfer speed of my
>Dad's H.D.D. I thought I'd try updating the BIOS to see whether this
>would help. It didn't.
>
>I flashed the BIOS to the latest version, the flash went ok,
>unfortunately the P.C. won't boot anymore. There are various errors
>reported;
>page fault in non paged area
>unknown flash type
>incorrect system disk
>
>Sometimes there are no errors, just numbers and letters scrolling down
>the screen.
>
>I'm kinda panicking now, I'm guessing that the BIOS I used wasn't
>suitable for that motherboard.
>
>Can I fix it? Is it as simple as downloading an older BIOS from the
>website and re-flashing?
>
>Please help!!
>
>TIA

Taken from your past post this appears to be the system in
question:

Gigabyte GA-7DX
AMD Athlon 2100XP
768MB DDR 333
Chaintech Geforce4 MX440
80GB Western Digital H.D.D.
Sony 52X CD Rom
Sony 52X CD Writer
Can't remember the P.S.U. manufacturer.

First have you tried clearing the CMOS?

Have you double-checked that the bios you downloaded was the
correct one? Did you use the traditional DOS boot floppy to
flash, or some other method (like what?)? Generally on
older boards it's a bad idea to try using a Windows flasher
(and not the greatest idea to use a windows flasher even on
new boards, no point in increasing odds of a problem).

Some Gigabyte boards have a dual-bios (dual EEPROM) feature
where (usually) both are soldered onto the board. However
from this picture,
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/20001114/com07_20.jpg
it appears that yours is not one of those, but fortunately
the EEPROM is in a socket instead of soldered on, is this
correct?

If you happen to have a copy of the bios that was previously
being used, that might be a good candidate to try reflashing
to the board if necessary. If clearing CMOS doesn't help,
when the system comes up is there a way into the bios for an
integral flasher and/or does it attempt to access the floppy
drive? Either would be necessary to reflash the EEPROM
while it's still installed in the board-socket.

It "might" help if you changed the bus speeds, underclocking
the board to 100MHz FSB & Memory, since at this point we
don't know exactly what went wrong. Many Gigabyte boards
have jumpers or switches to accomplish this instead of
menu-driven bios settings.

On the following page are some GB bios that list in their
notes that they're only for board rev. 3 or above, is yours
revision 3 or above, or below rev. 3?
http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-7DX.htm
It does seem a bit odd that (that) site is only showing bios
for the later board revisions.

You might inquire whether anyone has a specifc bios at some
web forums like
http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=11

 

[Apollo]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"Craig" <craigandyrussell@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1102509631.012892.299530@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> First have you tried clearing the CMOS?
> ----Yes, and I loaded the failsafe options in the BIOS, didn't make
> any
> difference.
>
> Did you use the traditional DOS boot floppy to
> flash, or some other method (like what?)
> ----Unfortunately I used the Windows utility that Gigabyte provided.
>
> but fortunately
> the EEPROM is in a socket instead of soldered on, is this
> correct?
> ----I'm not sure, I'm at work at the moment!
>
> If you happen to have a copy of the bios that was previously
> being used, that might be a good candidate to try reflashing
> to the board if necessary
> ----I had the foresight to save the previously used BIOS, I saved it
> onto the desktop.
> I could plug the H.D.D. into my own P.C. and recover the BIOS.
>

That should work fine.

> when the system comes up is there a way into the bios for an
> integral flasher and/or does it attempt to access the floppy
> drive?
> ----I can access the BIOS while the system POSTs, it does attempt to
> acess the floppy drive,
> however, It doesn't always MANAGE to access the floppy drive.
>
> is yours revision 3 or above, or below rev. 3?
> ----It's definitely below revision 3. I'm fairly positive I used a
> BIOS
> for a revision 3 board whereas my board is older.
>
> Would I be right in thinking that if I recovered the previously saved
> (and working) BIOS, made a DOS boot disk with the BIOS on it,
> then boot the P.C. I could revert to the original BIOS?
>

That should also work fine, you'll need the dos flash tool for your bios
on the boot disk too, download a copy or look on the cd that came with
the mobo, if available.

> I don't suppose you'd have any idea whether I've caused permanant
> damage would you?
>

I don't see any problems here, the main problem people in your situation
face is that the incorrect bios won't even post, so can't be re-flashed.

Remember to reset the cmos again after the flash, re-boot and re-load
optimised defaults, reboot again and set up any specific settings. Also
the cmos reset should be done with the power lead completely
disconnected, an atx psu will still supply power to the mobo when the
system is shutdown.

Hope you get it sorted,

--
Ian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 8 Dec 2004 04:40:31 -0800, "Craig"
<craigandyrussell@hotmail.com> wrote:

Please try to use a newsreader that properly formats
replies. It seems that Google has royally screwed up their
"groups" service, and we can only hope it will eventually be
fixed!

<snip>



>is yours revision 3 or above, or below rev. 3?
>----It's definitely below revision 3. I'm fairly positive I used a BIOS
>for a revision 3 board whereas my board is older.
>
>Would I be right in thinking that if I recovered the previously saved
>(and working) BIOS, made a DOS boot disk with the BIOS on it,
>then boot the P.C. I could revert to the original BIOS?


Yes that is the best attempt.
I'd still try underclocking to 100MHz FSB first though, and
confirming it's as stable as possible before proceeding to
flash.

>
>I don't suppose you'd have any idea whether I've caused permanant
>damage would you?

Doubtful, it's just a matter of reflashing, then clearing
CMOS, loading setup defaults. At worst if you'd tried to
run windows that might've corrupted some files but the
motherboard should be fine once you get the working bios
flashed again and clear out the old settings, load the
defaults.

 

[Craig]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks very much for all replies.

I've read and re-read the flash instructions obtained from Gigabyte's site.
I'm going to give it a go when I get home from work.

Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 8 Dec 2004 00:24:29 -0800, "Craig" <craigandyrussell@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>I posted a topic a few days ago regarding the transfer speed of my
>Dad's H.D.D. I thought I'd try updating the BIOS to see whether this
>would help. It didn't.
>
>I flashed the BIOS to the latest version, the flash went ok,
>unfortunately the P.C. won't boot anymore. There are various errors
>reported;
>page fault in non paged area
>unknown flash type
>incorrect system disk
>
>Sometimes there are no errors, just numbers and letters scrolling down
>the screen.
>
>I'm kinda panicking now, I'm guessing that the BIOS I used wasn't
>suitable for that motherboard.
>
>Can I fix it? Is it as simple as downloading an older BIOS from the
>website and re-flashing?
>
>Please help!!
>
>TIA


TOAST!!!!!

Well, you can certainly try to reflash the BIOS. You certainly can't
make things any worse than you already have!


Raymond Sirois
SysOp: The Lost Chord BBS
607-733-5745
telnet://thelostchord.dns2go.com:6000